This Mont Kiara penthouse came to us with a generous floor plan, an extraordinary skyline view, and an interior that had aged into a state of confused over-decoration. The clients — a young Malaysian family with two children, both parents travelling regularly for work — wanted the door to close behind them on something genuinely calm.
The brief
“We want a home that we recognise the moment we walk in.” That was the first sentence of the brief. It was also the brief’s only specific instruction. Everything else was left to a long conversation about how the family lived, what travel had taught them about hotels, and what they wanted home to be that hotels were not.
The design strategy
Strip back, then build with intent
The penthouse had been over-designed by a previous practice. We removed almost everything that was not structural. The floor plan was rationalised around three movements: the principal living and dining at the centre, a private parents’ wing along one orientation, the children’s rooms and family room along the other.
Frame the view, do not be defeated by it
A penthouse with a Kuala Lumpur skyline view runs a quiet design risk: the view dominates the interior and everything inside reads as backdrop. We countered this by bringing a strong, restrained material palette to the interior — honed limestone floors, fluted oak joinery, brushed brass fittings — that holds its own against the cityscape.
Plan for return, not for arrival
Most luxury penthouse design optimises for the moment of arrival — the photograph, the first impression. We optimised this one for the moment of return: tired parents, late flight, children asleep in the car. The lighting comes on softly. The corridors are gentle. The kitchen has a cup of tea ready in the sense that the kettle and cup are always exactly where they are needed.
Materials
A short, restrained palette. Honed Italian limestone for principal floors. European oak with a fine flute pattern for principal joinery. Brushed brass hardware throughout. Linen drapery and upholstery, in three quiet tones. The kitchen island is a single book-matched Calacatta slab.
No marble, except for the kitchen island. No metallics, except brushed brass. No painted finishes that humidity will eventually punish. The discipline of the palette is what makes the home feel coherent at any hour of any day.
The room we are proudest of
The principal bathroom. Limestone floor, limestone walls, a single brass mixer at the basin, a deep freestanding tub, soft light from above and below. The room takes 90 seconds to walk into and decompress in. Both parents use it as the first room of the morning. The wife described it, six months after handover, as the most useful room in her life.
Project facts
- Location: Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur
- Floor area: ~3,800 sq ft, single floor penthouse
- Project type: Full interior renovation
- Timeline: 9 months from concept to handover
- Designed by: Designed Design Associates
Working with DDA
If you are planning a penthouse renovation in Kuala Lumpur and want a designer who treats the brief as a long conversation, we would be glad to hear from you.